Green and Reverse Logistics as the Tools for improving environmental Sustainability

Abstract

Logistics plays a very important role in the industrial world. Globalization and population growth made logistics more in demand. Meanwhile the amount of waste from different processes is growing. Recently such concepts as green and reverse logistics have been developing. Therefore the main objective of the thesis was to answer the question: How and in what way the companies can implement green and reverse logistics concepts in order to improve the environmental sustainability? Green and reverse logistics are a complex concepts that encompass various processes and activities. They have a great potential to improve the condition of environment. The adoption of green practices were studied on the example of two companies Kesko and S Group. The results were positive. Both companies adopt various methods and tech-niques, such as production of renewable energy; control and efficient usage of light, ven-tilation and air conditioning; route planning and load optimization; efficient usage of vehi-cles; well designed and optimized packaging; reuse, recycling and proper disposal of waste and returned goods resulting in a positive impact on environment. The result showed that there are many things that still can be improved. Companies should shift from profit oriented way of thinking towards the environmental conscious-ness. In addition to that governments must provide a proper conditions for green and reverse logistics implementation. The main goal of each organization must be continuous development of its operations and processes for the improvement of environmental sustainability. Only with everyone’s contribution the mitigation of climate change and reduction of waste can be achieved.